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moon_unit2 writes "We're all familiar with ads that seem to follow you around as you go from one website to another. A startup called Drawbridge has developed technology that could let those ads follow you even when you pick up a smartphone or tablet. The company, founded by an ex-Google scientist, employs statistical methods to try to match and identify users on different devices. The idea is that this will preserve privacy while making mobile ads more lucrative, although some experts aren't convinced that the data will be truly anonymous."

Same here, all ads make me think is that a portion of my purchase price is going towards the ad instead of a better product. I tells me that their product does not have enough merit on its own that they have to advertize it to you instead of informed buyers choosing their product based on its ability alone.

The current plan for most advertising is to raise brand awareness. So, when you see two competing products you pick the one that feels most comfortable and familiar, because you've seen the brand before. I make a conscious point of avoiding products that seem more attractive for a reason I can't consciously bring to mind, but not enough people do for this to work as a strategy.

Does it matter? I'm logged in to google almost 24/7 on all devices. I think Google has a pretty good idea its me when serving up its ads. Almost all tech ads, very few video games, pharmecutical or fashion products.

I stopped using Google services long time ago for that same reason. Used to be a huge fanboy... and I mean I used everything - email, docs, blogger, maps, adwords, adsense, freaking shopping site, everything. Now the only one I have left is Gmail, to make sure nobody steals whatever accounts I haven't moved off of it yet.

If you're staying logged in on google services across several devices, then it clearly doesn't matter to you. You don't mind being tracked.

I avoid it on my phone by using Cyanogenmod (so I can selectively allow and deny specific access types to specific applications) and using a firewall so that google and other advertisers can't be reached. Pretty much the same way I do it on my laptop, desktop, and servers.

I'm just saying that the system being devised by this ex google engineer isn't really that spooky for most people ( who I think are like me) that already don't mind being tracked. I mean its kind of scary,but I think I'm adjusting to a world where real privacy as we used to think of it doesn't really exist. Between google and amazon, they know where I go, do, see and what I buy. So far those companies have done a good job not sharing that in a publically accesible way. Facebook, on the other hand, has in th

This is a classic disambiguation effort, like figuring out that there is only one family in a postal code with children, and therefor associating my ad-tracking with them in particular. And then selling that information to other vendors.

Drawbridge works by looking at the cookie data that comes with a request from a mobile or desktop browser or app to an ad exchange, and using its “bridging” algorithm to assess the probability that any two arbitrary cookies from different devices are associated with the same person. The Web cookies that Drawbridge uses [allegedly] contain anonymous, relatively benign information, such as the browser client, the site accessed, and a time stamp. Unlike a method known as device fingerprinting, Drawbridge doesn't rely on technologies that directly track user activity, or report geolocation or other invasive device identifiers... Once they reach a threshold of certainty that two cookies represent the same person, they call it a match.

Here's hoping my own browsing habits don't match too closely with any person the government has decided to put on its "disposition matrix..."

Yes, congratulations on your Network+ certification. Each client has its own hosts file, which would have to be updated individually, manually, which is why FSM gave us DNS instead and, in this case, subscription-based ad-blocking.

Ads will do that anyway, as they all have to compete with each other for your attention. By accelerating the process, we're just drawing attention to the awful tactics, rather than letting everybody slowly get accustomed to them over time.

We're all familiar with ads that seem to follow you around as you go from one website to another.

Ads? Do companies still use those silly things? Between Ghostery and Adblock Plus when I'm in Chrome at work on my Windows 7 box and Adblock Plus and a modified hosts file when I'm at home in Safari on my Mac, I haven't seen an ad in months, let alone one following me around.

There is NO EXPECTATION or REQUIREMENT that a visitor to a site be served ads. There is no implied contract, even. Stop being such a capitalist already. NO IMPLIED CONTRACT. If a site cannot make it via some other method besides ads, they possess a poor business model.

I've not seen an ad on my personal machines in several years thanks to adblock plus, hosts files, no cookes enabled, etc.

I already pay to access the Internet via my ISP; I will not pay with my privacy. I and everyone else has the RIGHT to priv

If you are in marketing, it is you who is the leach. I pay for my internet access and dont want you riding on my bandwidth.

I remember when most "sites" were bulletin boards and they were not that bad for the time. There were mostly free apart from the phone call, for which I still pay the equivalent today. There were plenty of them on many topics, without adverts, and they mostly kept relevant to the topic.

I have several web sites which are free, have no adverts, and anyone is welcome to visit. I

If you are going to that much effort why not run your own DNS sever? Bind9 is fairly light weight. Hell I run it on my Linux laptop without noticing much of anything in the way of a performance hit, and it will fallow you from device to device if you set your dns service provider to your home server.

I've encountered this some 4 years ago already. One day, while at the office, I noticed an ad on my work laptop for something that I just recently had spent a few hours searching for on my home machine. Nice coincidence, I thought. But it wasn't. I noticed over the next few weeks that it was not just one ad. I was being targeted with stuff related to that earlier search. I think they linked the two devices because both regularly go onto the network via my home router.

If I don't buy something first time I see an add, showing it to me again is just going to fail again. Repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different result is one of the hall marks of insanity!

I'm sure that advertises follows people across devices, already. Most people I know are either logged into Google or Apple at home, at work, and on all of their gadgets. Of course, they're already being tracked.

What's the first thing you do when you set up a new Android phone? Log in to your Google account.You probably search for things on Google using your Google account.If you use Chrome, you probably log in with your Google account.Who is the biggest Internet advertiser?

I don't even set up a Google account. I can live without all that crap thankyouverymuch - The only two "apps" I wanted I wrote and compiled myself, temporarily allowed my phone to load unsigned apks so I could install them and er.. that's it:)

Actually that is not what I do when I set up an Android phone. I skip the Google account creation, root the phone, disable the Google services and re-enable them on demand. That way I only get to tell Google about my activities with the phone when I'm using the 'play store' (horrible name, that). As soon as I'm done playing with the store I press the 'disable' button and 'poof', there goes my Google login. The only disadvantage to this is that I have to enter my account details whenever I want to use the 'p

In fact I get no advertisements on any of my phones, tablets, TV or computers.

you see, I'm one of those evil terrorists that blocks advertising. I block it in my devices, I record TV with MythTV that strips out Commercials.I am evil incarnate. Children go to sleep hungry because of my actions, and the enture economic collapse is my fault due to the adblocking.

Want to know what is even more evil? I block telemarketing calls, and I dont read any spam. I am evil Incarnate and utterly proud of who I am.

"...some experts aren't convinced that the data will be truly anonymous."
By virtue of the fact that advertisers are trying to link mobile data to desktop/laptop data, I'd say it's pretty far from anonymous.
Advertisers will do anything to waste our time with irrelevant data in the interest of making a few bucks. In other news, the sun will rise tomorrow.